1 minute read
Structural health monitoring renders industrial assets smart
Smart structural health monitoring clearly reduces downtime and replaces schedule-driven maintenance with condition-based maintenance. It increases the safety and longevity of our customers’ assets.
Jeroen Van Wittenberghe
OCAS combines its competencies in the fields of advanced material characterisation, numerical modelling, large-scale testing, and welding assessment in its service offer on structural health monitoring of industrial assets. Our smart approach can be applied in a wide range of applications, especially for capital-intensive assets. OCAS managed SafeLife, a funded project in which industrial assets from project partners ArcelorMittal Gent, Infrabel and C-Power are instrumented. Additional partners Sentea and 24Sea added value on data acquisition and data flow. The academic partners of UGent and VUB contributed with advanced measurements, modelling and analysis techniques.
MONITORING AND DIGITAL TWINS TO SAFELY EXTEND LIFETIME
The need for reliable data in structural health monitoring of industrial assets is clear. OCAS uses its expertise in the behaviour of these structures under real operating conditions through advanced load and condition monitoring. This data is mirrored virtually using a digital twin. The outcome is translated into customer recommendations regarding risk-based inspection and preventive maintenance. Structural health monitoring enables a more informed view on the fitness-for-purpose of safety-critical equipment such as large industrial assets, overhead cranes, vessels, and so on. Digital twinning provides a reliable tool for safely extending the lifetime of the structure.
LARGE-SCALE TESTING TO VALIDATE
The introduction of novel materials or assembly techniques often requires formal qualification. In this case, OCAS offers versatile large-scale test set-ups. The results of these experiments have a high added value when applied to inspection method or performance validation. Moreover, large-scale testing is a strong asset for assessing the safety level of complex welded structures or, in the case of damaged components, gaining knowledge about remaining lifetime.
LOAD AND DAMAGE MONITORING TO PREDICT LIFE EXPECTANCY
As structural health monitoring is being performed while the structure is in service, it enables us to predict and identify damage. Then, inspections and servicing of equipment can be scheduled in a cost-effective way. Powered with realtime data, OCAS experts can predict the structure’s remaining operational lifetime and implement a risk-based inspection philosophy that allows them to reduce the operational expenditure, and extend the operational lifetime.
